


Good Behavior

by MxStitch



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21726943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MxStitch/pseuds/MxStitch
Summary: Starscream and Windblade learn how to live in a world that seems to no longer need either of them.
Relationships: Starscream/Windblade
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45





	Good Behavior

**Author's Note:**

> Twitter Prompt from @AuroIsa_yah and I’ve been wanting to write this out for a while now!
> 
> This takes place after TAAO Annual. Starscream is in prison, the Council of Worlds is the governing body of Cybertron and it’s colonies and Unicron didn’t eat everything. Outside of that… I’m not very concerned with being canon compliant because 1. I’m not getting paid to write this 2. This is for funsies. So. Enjoy!
> 
> A Note on Time:  
> Nano-Klik - 1 Second  
> Klik - 1 Minute  
> Joor - 1 Hour  
> Cycle - 1 Day  
> Mega Cycle - 4 Days  
> Deca Cycle - 10 Days  
> Stellar Cycle - 1 Year

Chapter 1: Home

Starscream’s life was measured in deca cycles. In prison he could have one visitor for one joor every deca cycle. The rotation involved Windblade one deca cycle, Bumblebee the next, Wheeljack after that. The deca cycle after that was always a random lottery, maybe it would be a reporter or someone trying to sell his story or Thundercracker… who coincidentally had already sold his story but it was a complete flop with a bizarre cult following. Then, of course, the cycle repeated: Windblade, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Rando, over and over and over again.

Starscream had seen Windblade 82,125 times since he’d entered this cell and today would be number 82,126. His expected visitors were typically punctual… though this time felt different. A lifetime prison sentence is a long time when you live for millions upon millions of years and somehow the ten kliks that just passed felt like an eternity.

“She’s late…” Starscream mumbled to no one.

——-

Windblade stood in the waiting room and despite having a sharp processor that could translate the thoughts of a titan, move her frame with swiftness and precision to win battles, create speeches, policies and initiatives that impacted an entire race of people for stellar cycles and yet... she couldn’t seem to convince her peds to move. Twice she tried to convince herself to move on the count of three. Then on the count of ten. When that failed, she ran through the scenarios in her processor of how Starscream would react and what he’d say and it entirely depended on the mood he was in, which she couldn’t predict.

“It’s good news… so nobody would get upset about good news. It’s fine. Right?” 

She glanced over at another mech who was seated and waiting to meet with someone themselves.

They shrugged and Windblade sighed. 

“It’s fine.” She repeated as she finally willed her peds to move.

——-

Windblade focused on her own servos, looking at the contrast of the paint on her digits against the silver tabletop. She glanced up for a moment as she heard the legs of the chair across from her move against the floor.

Windblade broke the silence without glancing up, “I know I’m a little late.” 

“Hm. Traffic must have been-“

“They’re processing your release… after this conversation, you’re a free mech.”

Starscream wasn’t often at a loss for words but this was an exception as he simply stared at her, mouth slightly agape.

Windblade glanced up, took this opportunity to continue her thoughts, and returned the focus of her optics back on her servos, “I know this is unexpected but… you outlasted everyone’s anger with you. It’s something you’re good at. Surviving. So if you’re wondering why… it’s because a lifetime is so long… a lot of bots think that’s too long. And I agree. It’s pointless to keep you locked up when we know you can and do actually want to do better out there.” 

Windblade smiled briefly but continued, “And… I wanted to make you an offer. If... nobody else has offered of course and you don’t have to say yes, I mean you can say yes, but you can also change your mind, but I didn’t want you to be alone and without any help the minute you were released so I thought I’d… I wanted to offer… you can stay with me. For however long you need. If you’d like to.”

“I’d like that.”

Windblade glanced up and while Starscream wasn’t smiling, his expression certainly had a softness she hadn’t seen before.

“Good. I’d like that too.”

——-

Windblade helped gather Starscream’s things, while his parole office went over the terms and conditions of his release with him. Over thousands of stellar cycles, Starscream had managed to accumulate no small number of items in his cell. His good behavior and flair for flattery had ensured certain privileges and perks. Not to say that his incarceration had been easy or without difficulties… but Windblade was glad she’d had the foresight and optimism to bring a transport on her visit today. 

The flight back to Windblade’s habitat suite wasn’t very long, though Starscream’s silence made it feel longer than usual. She glanced at him occasionally to see him mostly staring out the window. Cybertron had moved forward without Starscream and it was as if he were seeing it for the first time. Unloading the transport went smoothly with a little help from Bumblebee. The yellow mini-bot also absolutely insisted on a selfie (that he immediately printed from the same device) with the three of them before he left. 

Windblade closed the door behind her, photo in her servos, to see Starscream had wasted no time in making himself at home.

She found the seeker with a magnetic hanging hook by the wall and a picture of himself tucked underneath his arm, his previously subdued demeanor clearly long gone. “Sparse living, Windblade. You have zero paintings of yourself on the wall. Any wall. In fact you have zero paintings or pictures or photos up… you really live like this?” All it took was a flick of his servo to get his photo up on the wall.

Windblade tisked with a smirk, “I didn’t realize I was getting a free interior decorator today.”

There were already three neatly painted seeker models and an art book on her coffee table as well as a seemingly impossible number of crystals neatly placed on several shelves. “Well, lucky you then!” The seeker fished a few things out of his sub space and set them by the energon dispenser, then started pulling more of his belongings out of the boxes. Windblade’s smirk stayed in place as she walked over to try and contain the whirlwind of decisions being quickly and chaotically made in her hab suite. She soon found the photo in her servo, plucked up into Starscream’s as he gave the picture careful consideration for a klik and then he tucked it in the frame of a nearby mirror.

Starscream, pleased with his photo placement, lifted up his large painting of Cybertron, a competitively matching smirk on his faceplate. “So where should we put this?”

——-

Eventually, Starscream miraculously ran out of belongings to pull out of his seemingly bottomless moving boxes, retrieved some energon from the dispenser and sat on the couch next to Windblade. 

“That was intense,” Windblade let out a small laugh as she sipped her fuel and glanced around her suddenly different living space.

“I hate not being settled.” Starscream explained simply. “I hate…” he threw a glance at ‘his’ boxes by the door. “... being boxed in.”

Windblade’s wings twitched as she glanced up from her drink and patted Starscream’s shoulder plate gently. “I don’t blame you. We should go for a flight tomorrow. But tonight, we both really need to recharge.”

“Right. So.” A huge grin spread across the seeker’s face. “I finally get to see your berth room, hm?”

His tone was joking in nature, but Windblade still rolled an optic. “Well. Yes. I’ll sleep on the couch. If I’m being honest, I didn’t fully expect you to say yes to this, so I’m still working on your room.”

Starscream looked instantly offended, “I thought you had more respect for yourself. No. I can sleep on the couch.”

Windblade’s plating puffed. “No, you’re a guest. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Starscream did not back down. “No, I’m a roommate, I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Oh stop it!” Windblade’s optics rolled up as she turned her head away from Starscream. When she didn’t hear a retort, or a grumble or even a mutter, she glanced back at him to see his optics shuttered.

“That’s not a fair way to win an argument…” Windblade sounded exasperated but her face softened as she took the glass of energon from Starscream’s hand and set it on a nearby table. She draped a blanket over Starscream, then settled down in a chair by the couch with a blanket of her own and a data pad to focus on till her optics shuttered and she fell into recharge.

The tell tale sound of internal fans shifting from an active status to the slower hum of recharge caused Starscream to pop an optic online. “Finally.” He mumbled. “And it IS a fair way to win an argument.” He smirked when Windblade didn’t stir, stood up from the couch, sparing the blanket that slid off of him a small smile and he scooped Windblade up into his arms, took her to her room and gently set her down on her berth.

“There.” He paused at the doorway, giving Windblade one more glance before he walked back to the couch in the living room and settled in for the night.

——-

Rest was not guaranteed to him, and Starscream found himself startled awake more than once. The slightest sway in the building from the wind, as Windblade’s apartment was something of a cozy roost amongst the skyscrapers in Iacon, made him twitch awake. It wasn’t just the swaying. Starscream’s processor decided to focus on every terrible thing it could. He was finally in a place that was somewhat safe, no war, no fighting, no guards, no new inmates coming at him with a shank in hand to prove themselves… and yet his processor couldn’t quite believe it. When it wasn’t the nightmares that caused his optics to flicker online, it was everything else. A creek or click from down the hall, the restless twitches from his own wings, and finally the clack of peds as Windblade walked into the living room.

“Can’t recharge?” Starscream asked, wanting company far more than silence at the moment.

Windlbade shook her helm as she walked over to him, “No. You can’t recharge either it looks like.

Starscream scooted over and patted the couch cushion next to him. Windblade smiled, took the seat beside him, and was a little surprised when she found one of his arms over her shoulders.

Windblade wiggled her wings to get comfortable and pulled a blanket up over their legs. She glanced up at Starscream, wondering if he was in a talkative mood, “Why can’t you recharge? I always have a little trouble recharging in a new place at first...”

“Yeah… Pretty much.” Starscream smoothly fibbed. He didn’t care to talk about it all just yet. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re up. Don’t you have go to lead the council tomorrow?”

Windblade gave him a weird half smirk, combined with a confused optical ridge quirk. “No. I don’t. You didn’t know?” 

“You were voted out?” Starscream’s question came with an irritated and shocked huff.

“You REALLY didn’t watch the election coverage?”

“YOU were voted OUT?” And now an irritated wing flutter added itself to his reaction.

Windblade laughed a little, and a sad smile replaced her confused smirk, “Did you really think I was guaranteed to win forever?”

Starscream scowled a little, “What happened? 

He received a shrug from his couch companion. “I don’t know. Things change. The hot spots didn’t reignit just yesterday and there’s a lot of new bots on the planet and in some of the colonies and I couldn’t give them what they wanted… or needed. I...” Windblade scrubbed her hands against her faceplate and her vocalizer trembled a little. “I… I thought I was doing everything right… but I wasn’t.”

“Hey…” Starscream’s scowl of frustration switched to a frown of concern as his servos gently stroked Windblade’s back, between her wings. This was the first he’d heard of Windblade having trouble with the people of Cybertron and it’s allied worlds. He’d avoided the election coverage, as the “stories” tended to skew from completely false to simply annoying. He’d clearly underestimated the amount of fibbing Windblade had done during their visitation chats to keep him from worrying. “Hey.” He repeated himself and continued to rub a gentle and reassuring circle against her back plates. He wasn’t really sure what to say. Comforting others was not his strong suit.

Windblade wiped her servos against her faceplate a little and leaned back with a small but slightly forced smile. Starscream took the hint and moved his arm back up over her shoulders. “It’s okay.” She pulled the blanket up a little higher and tentatively snuggled a little closer to Starscream’s side. “I’ve been saving up a lot and not having a job tomorrow, well that just means we can go shopping for your room.”

“I love shopping.”

“I know you do.” Windblade’s smile became a bit more genuine as she covered a yawn. Starscream nestled down as he head the gentle hum of Windblade’s engines slip into recharge and as he glanced down at her and shuttered his own optics, he finally managed to get a little rest himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate Title: “and they were roommates”
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
